CP Unit - One Foot on the Ground Smoking Mirror Shakedown (2020)

Collective imagination has always been the guiding force behind CP Unit's music. Helmed by saxophonist & composer Chris Pitsiokos, structure and content are generated in real time, boldly and simultaneously showcasing principles of the individual and the aggregate. Pitsiokos' accomplices are certainly fit for the challenge – guitarist Sam Lisabeth (Guerilla Toss), bassist Henry Fraser (Ryan Power, Brandon Seabrook), and drummer Jason Nazary (Jaimie Branch, Little Women) are all stalwarts who have helped shape the current landscape of NYC music. At times equally maniacal and ponderous, CP Unit's music is in equal measure shocking and intuitive. Their result recalls aspects of noise rock, musique concrete, psychedelic rock, and Ornette Coleman's harmolodic funk.


Eschewing the tightly composed math and prog elements that characterize many of Pitsiokos’ earlier albums, One Foot on the Ground Smoking Mirror Shakedown unfolds carefully and organically. Each piece seems to grow from a small handful ideas in real time, as each band member navigates the open compositional space: the band moves effortlessly from soulful melodic passages to noise-infused maelstrom.

“Throughout the record, the leader's astonishingly fleet sax work – sometimes darting and soulful, sometimes squalling and unhinged – explodes with urgency and feverish invention.” --Hank Shteamer, Rolling Stone